


officially missing you

by fiddle_stix



Series: nct bits and bobs [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan & Mark Lee Are Best Friends, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan is Whipped, M/M, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, dreamies at all cuties and i love them, its cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:14:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22330927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiddle_stix/pseuds/fiddle_stix
Summary: But no matter how distracted he gets by all of them, Jaemin shouting haphazard encouragements—managing to side with everyone and no one all at once—and Renjun filming them all and struggling to keep his hand from shaking as he laughs, Donghyuck couldn’t help but feel like that were missing someone.Mainly because theywere actuallymissing someone."Whereas with me it is quite stark: I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal."— Vita Sackville-West to Virginia Woolf
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Series: nct bits and bobs [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1607350
Comments: 6
Kudos: 106





	officially missing you

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by my acceptance into a uni extension program (my year 12 is going to be lit yeet) and also lowkey inspired by [this tweet](https://twitter.com/thecaryatid/status/1217596345944563713?s=20).
> 
> Affectionately titled _‘get that uni life’_.

“Guess what, motherfuckers?”

Jisung scoffs. Renjun rolls his eyes. Jeno looks up from Jaemin’s phone to smile at him. God, this is why he’s Donghyuck favourite.

“Your boy actually did it!” he says with another shout, waving his acceptance papers in the air. Jeno joins in and Jaemin wanders over to pat him on the back.

“When did you become  _ our boy _ ?”

“Respect your elders, Jisungie,” says Jaemin while pinching Donghyuck’s cheek. It hurts, but he’s too pumped up with adrenaline to care that much.

A pair of arms wind their way around Donghyuck’s neck and a familiar squeal threatens to burst his ear drums. “Hyung, you’re going to be a uni graduate!”

“Finally, someone who’s happy for me!”

Jeno pouts and Jaemin slaps him on the shoulder. “What are we, dead fish?”

Donghyuck laughs and drags Chenle with him to bundle Jeno in a hug. “You’re my favourite, that’s what.”

“Don’t lie, Hyuck, we all know who your favourite really is.” It’s Renjun who calls him out, but Jeno’s eye roll tells him that he’s thinking the same thing.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says, even though he knows  _ exactly  _ what they’re all trying to say. He wanders over to the couch, Chenle detaching from him along the way to continue his game with Jisung. When he flops down next to Renjun, he gets an arm thrown over his shoulder and a smile.

“So high school graduate, university student, up-and-coming entrepreneur. What other greatness have you got in store for us, Lee Donghyuck.”

“The world is my oyster, isn’t that what they say?”

Renjun grins again before clutching at his chest dramatically. “Just don’t forget us when you’re rich or famous, alright?”

“I would never,” Donghyuck swears as he wipes away a fake tear with as much seriousness as he can manage until he breaks and bursts into laughter. Renjun joins in and after a while Donghyuck can’t really figure out if he’s laughing at their antics, still high of adrenaline or if it’s just because he’s happy. He figures it's because of the silly way Renjun’s face looks when he laughs and stops thinking about it too hard.

“Have you told him yet?” Renjun asks when they finally calm down, his voice lower and actually serious this time.

Donghyuck’s grin fades a little and he picks at the bottom of his shirt. “Not yet.” What he doesn’t say is that he’s already tried to, tried to call when he saw the letter lying on the kitchen bench. But there had been no answer and Donghyuck hadn’t really know how to process that so he’d shoved his phone away and opened the letter all by himself. “He’s probably in class or something, so I’ll give him a call later.”

“It’s summer holidays, Donghyuck.”

“Work then,” he shrugged, trying to be nonchalant and failing miserably. 

“He’s going to be so pumped for you when he hears the news,” Renjun murmurs, voice still soft.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. That’s what best friends are for, right?”

Donghyuck wills his eye not to twitch. “Right.”

Renjun rolls his eyes, trying for exasperated but falling short and landing on fond instead. “Congratulations, Hyuck. For real. Even though we’re all being annoying, we’re really proud of you for getting in.”

“Uh,” mumbles Donghyuck, scratching the back of his neck.

“Yah, accept the praise, you dork. You’ve worked really hard!”

Renjun reaches up to dislodge his hands from his neck and hold them in his own. “Thanks, Injunnie,” Donghyuck says with a proper—if a bit embarrassed—smile this time, giving Renjun’s hands a squeeze.

“You’re welcome,” he smiles, squeezing Donghyuck’s hand back. “Now, go and join their game before Jisung and Chenle flatten Jeno and decide to strangle each other.”

When Donghyuck glances over he sees that Jeno has joined in at some point and he’s the only thing currently keeping them apart from where he’s wedged in between them. As Chenle’s kart falls off the map during the game he lets out a shriek and Donghyuck can see the way Jeno’s back tenses from where Chenle’s trying to push him over to get his hands on Jisung.

“Just a normal day,” he says mostly to himself, but doesn’t miss the way Renjun grins.

“As normal as ever, right?” He pauses for a second before saying, “nothing’s gonna change, Hyuck. No matter which university you got, we’d all still be here messing around.”

As much as Renjun says in casually, it doesn’t stop Donghyuck’s chest from loosening, a band he didn’t know had been tight around his lungs finally relaxing. Renjun doesn’t miss it or the deep breath he draws in, but he doesn’t say anything and Donghyuck is grateful. Instead Renjun just shoves his shoulder, pushing him up and off the couch and towards the mess of boys in front of their TV.

He slumps across Jisung and Jeno’s laps, mischief dancing in his eyes, and reaches up to steal Chenle’s controller from him. “You’re supposed to fight in the game, not in real life, guys,” he laughs. “How about we try and push Jeno off, since he’s in front for the first time in his life?”

“Hey!”

Jeno can sound affronted all he wants, but Chenle has finally given up on trying to attack Jisung and snatched his remote back to go for Jeno’s kart instead so Donghyuck considers it a win and ignores him. He stays scattered across them even when Jisung grumbles about his legs and pokes his thighs with his knobby elbows. Donghyuck sticks his foot in his face and Jisung decides to stop complaining.

But no matter how distracted he gets by all of them, Jaemin shouting haphazard encouragements—managing to side with everyone and no one all at once—and Renjun filming them all and struggling to keep his hand from shaking as he laughs, Donghyuck couldn’t help but feel like that were missing someone. 

Mainly because they  _ were actually _ missing someone. 

But he feels guilty and a little stupid everytime he misses Mark. Because Mark is off becoming a genius at university and who is Donghyuck no one other than some highschool kid who calls him his best friend.  _ Highschool graduate now, _ he reminds himself halfheartedly.

And it isn’t fair at all to the rest of them. He can’t exactly turn to Jaemin or Jeno and say  _ hey, I know you guys are like my best friends, but I actually miss Mark so much it’s kind of scary.  _ It doesn’t feel right with just the six of them but Donghyuck is too ashamed to ever say it outloud. Because they should be enough. Sure, he can miss Mark a little, but the other five are still some of his closest friends and he can’t figure out why it doesn’t feel enough. 

So he excuses himself a little earlier than he usually would, telling them that his aunt wants him home early to celebrate. Which isn’t really a lie. They are going to be celebrating that night but their reservation isn’t until six thirty and he could have stayed for a whole hour more. But his thoughts are starting to run circles up in his brain and he’s got too much on his mind to be drawn into their heated game of Mortal Kombat. 

He receives a side hug from Renjun and a quick finger heart from Jeno, and even Jisung sidles over to murmur out a congratulations of his own. Donghyuck puts him out of his misery by pulling him into a headlock, to which Jisung squeals at him, but when the younger pulls away Donghyuck is pretty sure his own too-wide smile gives away how thankful he is.

The bus ride back home is lonely, and letting himself into the apartment is even worse. His aunt won’t be home until five which means that he’s all alone in the house, which means that there definitely shouldn’t be noises coming from the kitchen or the sound of the TV running. Donghyuck freezes in the doorway.

_ Are they being robbed right now? Why would they have left the TV on with Friends playing? Are they checking if it’s good enough quality to steal? _

A voice that sounds suspiciously like Jisung tells him that he’s  _ an absolute idiot that’s about to get murdered by a Friends-loving robber.  _ He grabs an umbrella from the coat rack as a poor excuse for a weapon, and tells the Jisung-voice in his head to shut up.

Only when he rounds the corner to the kitchen, the umbrella promptly clatters to the floor and his jaw drops open. 

A boy that looks freakishly like Mark jumps about a foot in the air and whirls around to stare. If anything, Donghyuck thinks he should be the one whose in a state of shock, but boy that is definitely Mark looks a little too cute with his eyes wide like that for Donghyuck to properly finish that thought.

“Uh, hi.”

Donghyuck wants to laugh but his jaw is still hanging open and he hasn’t really wrapped his brain around what’s happening just yet. Mark places the spatula he was holding back on the kitchen bench, scratching at his neck awkwardly.

“Sorry for not answering your call this morning. I was on a train and I know I should have just texted you or something with an excuse as to why I couldn’t pick up, but I was a little worried that you would figure out what I was doing with those freakish mind-reading powers of yours that Doyoung-hyung always complains about.”

God, he’s rambling and Donghyuck heart squeezes a little even though he’s told it that it’s not allowed to do that. “Doyoung-hyung is just scared of me.”

That draws a laugh out of Mark. “Oh he totally is, you should have heard what he told Johnny-hyung last week about you and Renjun being—wait, I’m getting off topic.” He shakes his head a little as if trying to shoo away a thought. “So anyways, yeah, this was supposed to be a surprise and all, and your aunt even helped me organise everything, but something must have gone wrong because she said you wouldn’t be back until six, yet you’re here, even though I thought I would have more time to prepare.”

Donghyuck’s feet tug him a little closer as if it would stop the weird way his heart is palpating in his chest, but it only seems to make it worse. He’s just glad that Mark doesn’t seem to notice. “I don’t know if anyone’s told you this, hyung, but you kind of suck at surprises.”

Mark laughs again, the one that makes his face squish up all funny like a lion trying to roar. Or maybe getting ready to sneeze. Either way, Donghyuck wants to punch his brain for thinking something so stupid. 

“Funnily enough,” Mark says with a grin, “someone might have told me that before, someone by the name of Lee Donghyuck. You might actually know him.” Donghyuck’s cheeks hurt from the size of his smile. Mark just continues on. “I was trying for one of those cheesy movie scenes, you know? Coming back from college and all, congratulating you in person, but I guess—”

Donghyuck finally reaches Mark, snaking his arms around Mark’s shoulders, and succeeding in finally shutting him up. For once, Mark doesn’t resist except for a huffed out laugh, drawing his arms up to hug Donghyuck back. Donghyuck stuck his cold nose into Mark’s neck just to see if he would flinch away and then had to wrestle down the strange burst of happiness that flew through him when Mark only squeezed him tighter.

“Hi Hyuck.”

“Hi Mark.”

Donghyuck wonders if this is where they’re supposed to let go.

Mark doesn’t let go.

Donghyuck doesn’t either.

“Does this mean that you missed me?”

“Nope,” Donghyuck says, even though Donghyuck was the one to pull him into a hug and even though he knows that Mark can feel Donghyuck’s grin against his neck. “Definitely not.”

Later, when they’re getting dressed to go out for their reservation at the restaurant and Mark is failing horribly at tying his tie, Donghyuck can't help but smile stupidly to himself. For a moment, he just lets himself embrace the unadulterated joy that’s burning bright in his chest.

The joy that’s so happy to have Mark back, to have him home. That’s been burning just under the surface of his skin ever since he ripped open that letter that morning and saw the words “ACCEPTED”. Joy from the fact that his hard work has paid off and come September he’s going to be starting his dream course right alongside Mark going into his second year. 

He lets it all come undone and crash over him.

Even if he hasn’t quite figured out why he misses Mark so damn much when he’s gone, or why his heart is always so eager to vibrate out of his chest whenever Mark smiles and makes his dumb lion face. All he knows is that tomorrow he’s going to make a stupid joke about Mark’s noodle hair from high school or the way he likes to sing in the shower, and Mark will threaten to choke him, and they’ll know that they love each other. Just like that.

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, Vita's letters to Virginia are quite something and I love them. Anywho, back to markhyuck.
> 
> I started this with absolutely no direction or plot or idea other than I knew that I wanted Hyuck to burst in and call them all "motherfuckers" while waving his university acceptance papers. I'm glad it didn't turn out too badly! (At least no one dies this time!)
> 
> I am actually having so much fun writing these two and have some fully fledged stories planned out to try and write, but we'll have to see how they go! Take care of yourselves!!
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/fiddle_styyx) | [tmblr](https://fiddle-styx.tumblr.com/)


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